International fashion & style; Chanel ..Fall 2014 ..Paris

Chanel Mart, Chanel Mall, Chanel Super Store. These are only some of the things that come to mind with witnessing this collection. For me, this is just a huge laugh, the laugh being that Karl laughs at everyone; he steals your money and he laughs and you think you are buying fashion. If you think of it, this is the perfect storm that any of the new crop of designers pray for every day.

Personally, my feeling is that Karl really is making fun of his ladies and the world of fashion while knowing fool well that this farce is a treasure trove of items that will send his ladies flocking to the cash registers with arms full of these kitschy items.

No question, he has now taken sneakers aka trainers as well as athletic wear and elevated them to iconic status and even added knee length versions. The joke is on you if you buy them or buy into it as there is nothing chic about it, there is only the Chanel/Karl mystique that you have bought into and yes, Karl laughs! The clothes are secondary here as they offer very little that is flattering and even less that is easy to wear. The corsetry that he began in couture is carried on here ad nauseum except in heavy tweeds and wools which make them all the more cumbersome and heavy handed. The shapes or silhouettes are as basic as they can be and yet he does manage to render so much of it in a most uninviting way and sometimes totally unappealing way.

What is amazing will be the amount of handbags, jewelry and scarves that will sell from this collection. You can be sure there will be waiting lists for those chain shopping baskets or bag holders as he showed them. The pearls will be in such demand as to cause a shortage in no time.

If you can look at this collection as a big picture you can see he is making fun of the so called “Wal Mart people” as well as housewives who wear his clothes to the super market whether they are appropriate or not and he has definitely added that urban hip hop street kid thing which all add up to one big HA HA.. The joke is on us not him and not Chanel.

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Jeffrey Felner is a dedicated participant and well informed historian in the businesses of fashion and style. Decades of experience allow him to pursue almost any topic relating to fashion and style with unique insight and unrivaled acumen.